How much nitrite is in an 833 curing brine? Three ounces.

What two factors determine USDA quality grade of a beef carcass? Marbling and maturity.

Texas Tech meat science students answered questions like these to secure a national championship win at the American Meat Science Association’s Reciprocal Meat Conference on Sunday in Madison, Wisconsin.

The RMC is held annually in various cities throughout the country, bringing together meat scientists and students from academia, industry and government. Tech representatives attend the conference every year, and students in the meat science program are asked to sign up for the academic quiz bowl.

Moriah Beyers, coordinator of meat science programs, said the quiz bowl involves teams of four students going head-to-head on questions about meat science, history and marketing.

The contest, sponsored by Hormel, featured 27 teams from 19 universities, according to a news release. Colorado State University fell to Tech for second place.

Beyers said about 850 people attended the RMC this year.

“It’s pretty impressive for some of those students to get on stage and do that in front of everyone and not freeze up,” she said.

Tech’s second four-person team finished in third place.

Kassandra Ognoskie, a Tech team member, said each of the 16 students who attended the RMC started preparing for the competition in March but kicked practice into high gear as soon as classes ended for the summer. Preparation included studying past quiz questions and familiarizing themselves with the buzzer.

Ognoskie said she was not expecting a championship win but figured Tech had as good a shot at it as any other team.

“I think that we’re so successful in this because we have the kids with the drive and the kids with the passion. We realize that this is a national contest,” she said.

Tech has won the national championship in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2013.

blake.ursch@lubbockonline.com

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Test your meat knowledge

Questions

■ 1. What red meat has been marketed as “the other white meat”?

■ 2. Peppercorns and bay leaf are commonly used spices that give which beef product its distinctive flavor?

■ 3. What are popular canned sausages, similar to frankfurters, although blander in flavor and smaller?

■ 4. What country has the highest per capita consumption of beef?

■ 5. What is traditionally the major meat ingredient in chorizo?

■ 6. What inorganic compound, found in red meat, is needed for hemoglobin production?

■ 7. What is the sausage product consumed in the greatest amount in the United States?

■ 8. What beef hide defect costs the industry millions of dollars, but is a law in some states?

■ 9. What is the common name of intramuscular fat?

■ 10. The beef rib and chuck are correctly separated between which two ribs?

Answers

■ 1. Pork

■ 2. Corned beef

■ 3. Vienna sausages

■ 4. Uruguay

■ 5. Pork

■ 6. Iron

■ 7. Wieners or frankfurters (hot dogs)

■ 8. Branding

■ 9. Marbling

■ 10. Fifth and sixth

*Questions and answers were taken directly from the 2003 and 2007 AMSA Quiz Bowls.